A Roll of the Die

I was recently cleaning out my house and in the process, doing some soul searching, when I came across a small, tarnished tin with a starfish on top. I was pleasantly surprised with it's contents....keepsakes from my childhood. I was flooded with memories. These treasures were not your ordinary keepsakes as one would imagine. A coincidence to be sure, to stumble upon this collection during this particular time in my life. I will list these items as some of you from my generation will surely recognize the bits of ephemera and pop culture that made up the 80's:

-pennies, all dark with age, with dates from the late sixties, through the 70's and mid 80's.

-1 Garfield earring (why was his smile so smarmy?)

-a friendship pin (a safety pin with many small beads) that contained the distinct color pattern I remembered looking at in childhood)

-a wrinkled Hubba Bubba gum wrapper. I could almost taste the sugary goodness that I loved as a child.Strawberry was the BEST. Is it still around?

-an old metal jack stone

-1 bobby pin and 1 hairpin (I could see my self standing in our old bathroom, my mother sticking them into my fine hair to keep it in place)

-1 green monopoly house (a valuable lesson learned in childhood, money that is easy come is just as easy go)

-1 pearl headed stick pin (my grandmother used them to stick into corsages or floral arrangements and to this day when I see one, I think of her).

-1 small shell (many summers at the beach, sticky, sandy, cool salty water, riding home with sandy legs stuck to hot vinyl car upholstery, milkshakes from the Sugar Shack)

-4 plastic colored beads (beading was popular then too)

-1 small pair of barbie plastic sunglasses (the kind that fits the doll, not the kid)

-lastly, a die, as in the the little white cube with black dots on it. It held no distinct memory, but it's significance was instantly recognizable. One roll, everything is good, alright, doin' fine. The next roll, it is all over, the end, sayonara, bye bye. What will the next roll hold? Maybe neither, maybe a fine line, silver as one would dare hope.

How could I have managed to save these seemingly meaningless items? Each one held a distinct memory. Such a gift, on a day when it was needed most. We all have our days..... There is a good song by Bob Seger who's words I heard today on the radio, the haunting chords so full, a classic to be certain.

"...I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off, I sat and wondered?
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain't it funny how the night moves?
When you just don't seem to have as much to lose
Strange, how the night moves..."

A New Day

It's day 5 of the exercise and diet regime. I've lost 3 pounds and am CRANKY. I can deal with the exercise now, but the diet! It will take some getting used to. Mostly veggies and protein, some carbs. I am in the "FAT SHREDDER" phase of the diet. When I feel like offending (i.e. eating something not good for my body) I just think "fatshredder, fatshredder, fatshredder". I like the way it sounds and feels when I say it. I like the image it projects. Whatever works!

My husband is doing it also. He has lost 4 pounds. I am so glad we are doing it together. It really helps to have somebody go through it with you.

For the first few days we tried the planned menu approach, but we didn't like what was on the menu. Fortunately, they have a portion approach, which is working out better. Since I work with felt, I have quite a collection of it. I've created a chart that has color coded felt squares that corresponds with the different food groups/portions you can have each day. They are velcroed to a piece of paper and stuck to the fridge. Whenever I prepare a meal, I take off the appropriate felt square and put it in a bag. At the end of the day, no felt squares are left on the paper and you start over the next day. I know it sounds crazy and may be (aren't we all a little crazy?) but it works. You have to make it work for you or you won't stick with it. Another upside of this great diet is that when you eat something that you would not have considered eating before you started the diet (a chocolate flavored mini rice cake for example) it taste WONDERFUL! Who knew....

On to more interesting items. I've just finished a great book. "Beautiful Boy" by David Sheff. A "must read" for any parent with children, whether young or old, whether touched by an addiction or not. It's about a father's journey through his son's drug addiction, which started in childhood. It was a real eye opener and I am so glad I read it, for my children's sake. I don't think most parents realize how widespread and insidious drug use is in today's society.

Exercise is HARD!

I've started a new exercise program, maybe you've heard of it "P90X"? I did the first day of exercises yesterday. It's no day in the park, just ask my 2 year old son, who observed the debacle with wary eyes. It went something like this....

It started out ok, just stretching and warming up. This is easy.... Halfway through, I had a STRONG desire to stop. I started thinking of rationalizations to stop. Dog underfoot. Kid in the fridge. Things to do. I pushed on through. It was difficult. A lot of different movements combined into one exercise (I did "core synergistics" and apparently "synergistics" means.... a lot of different movements combined into one exercise).

At one point, my son sat on his little toolbox eating a cheesestick and watching me. I could not finish a rep so I stopped. He looked at the TV and saw that the instructor was still doing the exercise, looked at me and said "Why you stop Mama?". It was incentive to continue.

I was wearing exercise attire and my belly was visible. My son, echoing my sentiment exactly, said "Why you do this?" indicating the exercise program. While grabbing a handful of belly, I replied "See this?" He looked at my belly and said "Oh".

Later on I tried to get him to join in. Just jumping around and stretching during the cool down. I said "Come on!" He said "No, me don't want to, me don't have one." I said "Have one of what?" He pointed to his tummy and said "One of those." I nearly collapsed laughing.

New Blog

Just trying this out. I think I'm going to like it here!